[IC] The Mech that went to an Active Volcano (Ranked Battle)

[ImportantNobody]

Saanga felt right at home in the burning landscape that surrounded him. Well, he was technically from a nice coastal island, but now that he had an armor with heat related powers named Valkanohs, it sort of came with the territory. This armor was on him now, glinting with fiery passion, or more likely caused from the light of the embers that sparked around him. He was here the claim some supposed powerup, but so far had no luck finding it buried amongst the soot and lava, which was entirely to be expected. He had hoped it would resonate far stronger with his armor so that he could find it immediately. The suspense was killing him. Hopefully it wouldn't be the mech approaching from behind that would literally be doing that.

He let out a sigh, his search cut unfortunately short for the time being. He'd have to destroy this mech if he wanted to search in peace, and this mech wanted him dead for whatever reason beyond Saanga's understanding, so a fight was clearly inevitable. He held out his hands, a chakram 4 feet in diameter forming in each hand out of a lava-like material flowing out of his armor openings in his palms. At first it was liquid but then cooled quickly despite the hot environment, turning into it's solid black form.

With that he waited until the mech could approach within range, ready to move quickly at a moment's notice.

[MelonHead]

The Mech broke through the ashy crust of the earth with each metallic step, finding purchase on the hard rock beneath. Fire shot up on each side of the large twelve foot walker as its monitoring screen pointed out warnings all around its pilot, somewhat pointing out the obvious in Higan’s opinion. The Ramor at the wheel so to speak had a 180 degree view of the world in front of him, and his Mech’s computer systems were tracking his target continuously adjusting for minute changes in the surrounding environment. Ultimately, the Ramor was more than well equipped to catch his foe, but taking him down had proven difficult thus far.

Higan’s A.S.P, or Armoured Support Platform, was equipped with both a 105mm rifled tank gun, 40mm anti-material rifle, and a Chaingun for suppression. He wasn’t particularly well stocked up on ammo, as his mech played a scouting role primarily and was not expected to remain in combat for extended periods, but such fire power should be more than enough for one… man.

He thought of his quarry as a man with some hesitation, Intel on the anomaly was low at best and Ramor had recently been exposed to a great many super-natural forces recently. Like most militaristic governments, the Grent Republic had decided to shoot first, dissect and ask questions later. Hence why Higan had been sent to deal with one such anomaly, some kind of heavily armoured humanoid with the ability to spew fire like the Draconicas of Ramor legend.

“Warning, target sighted.” The grating mechanical voice which served as his vocalised computer system on his Mech announced his opponent’s presence before it was possible for he himself to spot him. Automatic zoom features activated, revealing the figure of an armoured man holding some sort of circular object. He was standing about two hundred feet away in the middle of the rocky volcanic valley they both seemed to be stuck in, without any particularly prominent cover nearby, unless he could reach the walls of the volcanic river basin which stood about one hundred feet to either side of him.

“Well, to work then.” Higan said rather cheerfully, considering the implications, his grinning bearded form looking a little like a stereotypical Dwarf by human standards. He was equipped in standard Piloting gear, with a pistol and light body armour, as well as a knife if he needed it. He hadn’t even considered that though, if things got that dire he was probably screwed.

The Mech lifted its heavy left arm, 40mm anti-material rifle suspended below, automatic targeting systems locking onto Saanga and preparing to make the tiny manipulations required to keep bullets trailing directly at his centre of mass.

“Fire.” Higan said, allowing his Mech to open up engagements for the time being, the Rifle began to spew out heavy calibre armour piercing rounds at his foe’s centre of mass, firing a round every three seconds, Saanga would have to move fast or risk testing his armours durability against superior technology.

[ImportantNobody]

The impact of the bullet, although stopped by his chestplate, was enough to send him stumbling backwards, mostly due to being taken off guard because bullets didn't realistically toss people backwards nearly as far as movies lead people to believe. Small pieces of his armor sprayed everywhere as it's molten layer was revealed underneath the cracks, bubbling up to fill in and harden the gap almost as quickly as it had appeared, although not quite. Had it been any more rapid fire of an attack that would go against him in three seconds time it could have whittled through the repair work before it had time to completely cool, but luckily the rate of which he was to be attacked was just enough to go up against it's completely solidified state.

He could feel the armor draining a small portion of his energy to achieve the repair, although a single bullet at a time wouldn't make him pass out from the effort or anything for the time being, even if it did take more of a toll on him than he'd like when he wanted to save his strength for cutting through that giant robot. He definitely wouldn't want to stand around eating bullets for very long, that much was certain. This guy's aim was surprisingly good she he couldn't rely on dodging, even if he was decent at it.

While rushing forward at roughly 30 feet per second with a clockwise curve to his run around the side of his opponent so he wouldn't be getting hit straight on, and taking into account him getting hit a second time and stumbling as a result, he got within 150 feet of his target while only taking that one more shot after the initial one, 5 seconds total since the first hit once he reached this point. He would continue running closer, but at this range he felt comfortable in tossing his right chakram with a horizontal swing at the robot, aimed towards the knees to try and at least stop his attack momentarily as he was forced to dodge or block it somehow, but at the speed the chakram could travel and the distance it wouldn't likely make a major hit unless the rider was incompetent or the mech wasn't very maneuverable. At 70 miles per hour, the chakram would take just over two seconds to hit his target, about the time that his opponent would be taking his next shot. It was time to see how he would proceed, which would determine how Saanga would, but for now he'd keep advancing.

[MelonHead]

His Mech computer system tracked the round as it made contact with his armoured foe; shattering against whatever strange material he was clothed in. The lack of crippling impact was not a surprise to Higan, but his Mech still announced ‘negligible affect on target,’ he sighed inwardly.

“Alright, let’s try something else.” While allowing his Mech to continue firing and automatically adjusting he considered his options, even as his foe gathered himself and began running towards and around him. He was coming in at his right side, which meant his Mech had to swivel in order to keep him within the Rifle’s firing arc. As his Mech was turning, Higan had the machine back up and strafe rightwards, keeping some additional distance from his foe and also providing a moving target. It was also easier to keep his foe locked in if he moved to some degree with him.

Suddenly, his Mech identified an incoming threat; his foe had launched his disc-like weapon towards them. As his computer system reeled off the danger of the incoming threat he found himself in a fairly unique situation, being able to actually avoid a projectile coming at him rather than avoiding further hits. Deciding he had no interest in testing the damage capabilities of the foreign weapon he suddenly changed the direction of his run, with the Mech’s right foot settling onto ashy-ground it burst off and immediately cancelled out its rightward momentum, darting leftward instead as the disc bounced off the far side of the curved leg armour, unable to find purchase or produce the necessary pressure to cut effectively without scoring a direct hit. It still grazed the armour, something his computer system was keen to point out, as Higan controlled his Mech calmly.

“My turn again eh.” He laughed, catching his foe about to be perforated by another of his rifle rounds, his Mech turned to face him, the Machine suddenly stood stock still and braced itself, and about half a second after the rifle round fired from the secondary weapon Higan unleashed his primary. The boom of the tank gun firing a HE round towards his foe was striking in the near empty environment, but would the joint offensive of both rifle round and anti-tank round be able to damage his armoured foe?

[ImportantNobody]

"Not good..." Saanga thought to himself as he saw the mech brace himself and take aim with the much larger gun. He tossed the second disk at the mech's camera over the body after he got hit by the smaller weapon and then extended his hands outwards to try and form a shield out of the lava from his now empty hands, but it was too late to even get started as the round blasted powerfully into his armor, knocking him backwards and obliterating most of the chest piece so that it would require far more energy in repair work than the previous damage. As he rolled painfully to a stop, now 189 feet from him, he scrambled on hands and knees to a jagged portion of rock that was nearby to his right, able to just barely conceal someone about twice his size. It was the only good portion of cover in the general vicinity and wouldn't last long at all, even against the relatively smaller bullets, but it might take one or two before failing if he was lucky. No...he wouldn't need luck. He just needed a couple of seconds.

Focusing energy inside his suit for a new ability rather than repairing, in only three seconds of time he would then release it out the back vents near his shoulder blades to propel himself forcefully into the air like a rocket traveling at around 1,640 feet per second at max speed, his end goal to reach a spot directly over the mech's head at an altitude of 300 feet once he slowed back down. From there he planned to freefall, forming a lance in the 4 seconds or so it would take to come back down, hopefully on top of the mech's main body as he would deliver a massively powerful downward thrust thanks to all of the energy from his fall. The lance was held firmly in front of his body with a grip like holding a baseball bat, his body facing upright while his lance facing downward.

[MelonHead]

Higan reflexively lifted his arm to protect the vulnerable camera of his Mech, and the heavy metallic right arm moved in conjunction, taking the hit on a less essential but more heavily armoured region of its hull. The Chakram cut into the metal, but thrown by a relatively ordinary man it lacked the penetrating power necessary to destroy the war-orientated machine, even with its unusual qualities. It bounced off to its right leaving a small cut in the Mech’s forearm, and Higan’s eyes narrowed in irritation as the anti-tank round fired off, the recoil shaking him inside the Mech’s cockpit.

It seemed to have a good effect on target, throwing his foe and breaking apart whatever strange material covered him. However, Higan expected nothing else from his strongest and most finite attack. As he watched the HEAT round being ejected from the bottom of his tank-rifle he couldn’t help but mentally count down… four left.

“Alright, let’s see if we can finish you off early.” He said to himself, driving his Mech forward in pursuit. His computer system tracked Saana until he hid himself behind a short outcropping, causing Higan to curse loudly. He didn’t want to play a waiting game with his foe; he wanted to finish him while he was weak. Considering the size of the cover there was a good chance he could break it apart even with anti-personnel rounds, and was preparing to do just that when a bright light erupted up ahead.

“The hell?” Higan said, or something very similar comparatively in the language of Ramor. Rocketing up into the air was, according to his computer system, his flaming foe. Higan almost shook, looking at something so unnatural it was hard to think properly.

“I’ve got myself into something mighty strange here.” He said to no one in particular, as his Mech began calculating the speed and trajectory of his foe. In comparison to a missile it was fairly easy to track, and as it stopped high above him the Mech let out a warning of the rapid and dangerous descent.

“What sort of attack is this? Does this guy think I’m some sort of amateur?” Higan resisted craning his neck, knowing it would be pointless, and let his Mech do the hard maths necessary for what he had planned. Considering his just about acceptable knowledge of physics, Higan was fairly certain there wasn’t going to be any swift changing in direction from a dive like the one his foe was carrying out… so dropping straight down? Really?

Higan waited until the last possible moment, and with only about one and a half seconds to spare his Mech suddenly thrust itself forward and sideways with its right leg, twisting in mid-air even as it cleared about twenty feet instantly putting itself out of the range of his falling foe. There was no changing direction at that speed, so all Saanga had to look forward to was a cataclysmic collision with the floor.

The moment Higan’s Mech had span and come to a stop after turning 180 degrees and stepping backwards another twenty feet, he would train his secondary and tertiary weapons on the spot his computers calculated Saanga was just about to land. He wouldn’t have to wait long.

[ImportantNobody]

Saanga's armor would cushion the blow he would feel from inside the suit just like it had when hit by the bullets, so dropping from this height, or any height really, was of no concern to him other than the fact that the mech was able to dodge him in time for his downward thrust. Once it became clear that this was the case, Saanga shifted the focus of his attack, winding his arm backwards at the elbow and holding his weapon like a javelin, setting his sights on that blasted larger weapon. Take that out and he could win the battle!

However, it all happened so fast that as he was throwing it, the mech had covered far more distance than thought possible in the short amount of time, wagging the weapon around with all of it's movement, causing Saanga to miss wide what would have been a simple shot to make, given the size of his target and close distance until that moment. His jaw dropped from inside his helmet as he thought, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

He knew his odds of winning were quickly diminishing. He'd have to act fast to regroup or else he'd be done for. As he touched down he made an attempt to turn tail and run, protecting his destroyed front portion in the process and repairing it before doing anything else.

[MelonHead]

Higan watched the lance slam into the ground perilously close to his location as his mech became stationary about forty feet from his opponent’s landing point. Not a second later his supernatural foe Saanga crashed into the earth, shattering ashen ground and spewing up a cloud of smoke and dust. Higan hadn’t counted for the fact that his opponent could transfer so much momentum safely into the earth around him, and hesitated for just a moment as he realised what he needed to do.

“Gotta chase the nimble bastard!” Higan laughed, diverting his mech to start pounding after Saanga over the battlefield, it’s incredibly long strides giving it cause to keep pace with him easily, and potentially catch him. The moment he cleared the obstructive ash cloud he noted Saanga had turned around and was making good progress running off in the opposite direction. Higan immediately opened fire with his secondary weapon, the huge rifle, sending a round hurtling towards Saanga’s armoured back.

As the mech charged forward it levelled its right arm at the foe, and a whirring sound announced the tertiary weapons devastating storm just before it was unleashed. The chain gun spurted a huge volume of smaller rounds at Saanga’s back, less accurate but with far more numbers, coupled with the sharp snap of the rifle rounds all of the Mech’s fire should whittle away at the armoured defences of his foe, certainly slowing down any frontal repair process.

[ImportantNobody]

Saanga grimaced as he felt multiple bullets pinging off his armor, taking small chunks of it with them. He had no choice but to leave the front of his armor half done in order to instead focus on the back enough to heal the larger bullet but he didn't care about the smaller chips for now. He'd leave those alone and instead have the rest of his focus on creating a circular shield out of the material from his palms, resulting in a 3 foot radius with a place to grasp it in the middle with room for both hands as they grasped on. He slowed down his pace during all of this to intentionally allow the mech to gain on him, and then once the shield was complete in three seconds time and the mech fired his larger weapon again, he'd leave the damage to his back as is and swirl around and rush back to the mech as fast as he could, holding the shield up to protect him from the bullets where his chest armor couldn't.

He'd have three seconds until he'd worry about the larger gun again so could easily withstand the small arms fire long enough for him to close the 100 feet or so between them in a little over three seconds. His shield would get hit once by that weapon but it should be able to hold one of those shots. If he managed to reach the mech as planned then he'd go all Captain America on it and smash at joints he could reach with the edge of the shield, hopefully disabling it and bringing it down to his level where he could begin smashing other things.

...hopefully the mech wouldn't simply overpower him once he reached it...

[MelonHead]

“A frontal charge? Well, shit.”

Higan considered his options with the lightning fast consideration of an experienced soldier. His target now had some sort of shield to protect himself with and was coming in fast, obviously aiming to close the gap for some sort of melee engagement. Higan’s Mech wasn’t exactly equipped with some big sword or some other ridiculous close range weapon, so he didn’t particularly want to face his opponent at close range.

However, what the Mech had was superb mechanical strength.

His foe had some impressive skills, but Higan had no reason to suspect he could physically overcome the Mech, with modern engineering and metallic bulk on its side. Instead of pulling back then, like he would have if he was facing a larger Mech variant back home, he simply met the charge head on. The shield bash was an attack which worked well in the far gone past because it gave the advantage to the one of greater size and momentum, but neither of those advantages were to be had in this engagement, the Mech ruled in this regard.

The Mech charged, and as they met and clashed the shield battered against its right arm as Higan manoeuvred it into a wide sweeping backhand, slamming into the large object with impressive strength, the hand twisted as it passed the shield and the fingers of the right hand dug in, aiming to wrench the shield from Saanga’s hand, or throw him with it if he tried to match the strength of the Mech and hold on.

[ImportantNobody]

Saanga grunted as the arm slammed against his shield, forcing it loose with it's jarring strike that was further assisted by the fingers wrapping itself around the edges, leaving him with no hope of standing his ground while maintaining a hold of his shield. Oh well, it served it's purpose of allowing him to get in close and it was now a worthy sacrifice. As such he promptly let it go, and as it whizzed away from him within the mech's cold, metal grip, he lunged forward in an attempt to grab as high up onto the right leg with his right hand and legs holding on for dear life.

His left hand didn't join in on this effort because it would extend upwards and begin to take the form of a ten inch long dagger. If all of this plan worked out then he'd try to navigate up the mech with his right hand and legs while the dagger finished it's formation in 3 seconds time. Then, if he still managed to be alive and kicking and his plan still in the works, he'd begin stabbing at all the joints he could find; knees, hips, and shoulders if he could reach them.

However, if he was interrupted by arms moving in to attack than that would become his new priority target to try and joust at as they got closer. He wasn't sure how well the mech would be able to use it's guns on him while he was on it's body, but if it did bring a gun facing sidewise to shoot across the front of it's body, thus hitting him and not itself, then that would have to bring the gun awkwardly pointed and very close to Saanga due to the max length it could hold out it's arm and point the gun back across the way, so he'd have a good chance of being able to slash at the gun to hopefully damage some of it's parts.

If he got knocked off...well...that was the worse case scenario so he put priority on not getting knocked off.

[MelonHead]

The Mech was not capable of ‘kicking’ in a conventional sense, the weight would be too much for the legs to sustain safely. However, as one might expect from a mechanical construct with the ability of walking, it was more than capable of bending its knees, and therefore had the necessary requirements for a different form of defence.

As Saanga leapt at the Mech, Higan was waiting, suspecting that any foe who would charge straight at him was more comfortable at a melee range it was the only logical option. His Mech was somewhat limited in its own melee capabilities, but it did have a certain trick to perform. As the shield was launched away it suddenly thrust off the ground with its left leg, raising its right knee up high and driving its momentum forward and through Saanga, aiming to crush him with its metallic weight while cutting his leaping motion short with a knee to the body and face.

Once again it would come down to momentum and weight, two things the Mech definitely had to its favour.

[ImportantNobody]

Luckily his armor was still intact along his face and some of the torso, and because the attack covered such a wide area it wasn't able to penetrate into the hole in the torso. This left him rattled but not killed as what would happen to an unarmored person struck by a mech, giving the added benefit of cushioning some of the force like had happened when he fell from great heights. As he was shoved backwards against the leg he quickly gathered his wits about him enough to grasp onto it for dear life like his original plan was.

He angled the lava flowing out of his left palm inward towards the knee that was right next to his face, hoping to damage the parts while also solidifying it to increase it's cutting power and durability. Not that he had a choice to leave it liquid or not, given his lack of control over this ability, but either way he assumed would be able to do the damage he was looking for.

[MelonHead]

"Well, would you look at that." The Mech slammed back onto the ground with a man clinging to its right leg, causing Higan's surprised exclamation. He would have been worried, but he'd earned himself a moment and that moment was all that was required for the Mech's right arm to come swinging back into position, cutting whatever actions Saanga was attempting fairly short. The Mech reported minor scorching damage to the leg even in the small amount of time Saanga had to attack the joints, but it was unlikely to be enough to do any real damage to the Mech. The metallic armour was holding up under the heat, at least for now.

The Mech's right hand swooped down towards the man clinging to the A.S.P's bulky leg, fingers outstretched to clasp him around the left arm or even his head if it was accessible. If he wanted to hold onto the Mech and keep doing damage, Saanga was going to have to risk being caught in the Mech's vice-like grip.

[ImportantNobody]

As the mech's hand was moving in to grasp at his left arm, Saanga decided to let him have it. Unfortunately for his opponent, however, his version of letting him have it was to lash out with his dagger in a right to left slash towards the robotic trigger finger with all of the might that he could muster from his current position. He wasn't going to let go of his hold on the leg just yet, as it seemed to be working out for him so far. He wanted to do as much damage as he could to the various body parts from here or else he'd stand virtually no chance later on.

Disabling the hand would be the top attack priority while it was attempting to grab him, so as long as it continued to do so he'd "stand" his ground and keep hacking away at the trigger finger, chipping it's defenses down to the wires and then cutting them to ribbons before moving on to the thumb, should he get that far. Those would be the two fingers he'd hate to lose the most, that was for certain.

[MelonHead]

Higan’s Mech might have been in trouble if its hands were made of flesh and bone and connected to a nervous system, but so long as it were operable it had no reason to stop its grab. The blade slashed into the heavy metallic plating surrounding its ‘fingers’ and cut deep, but it was a futile effort as the Mech wasn’t going to jerk back and stop its grab just because it had been injured, that wasn’t what machines do. Instead it continued to force its way through, easily overpowering the smaller man and taking advantage of his precarious position clinging to the Mech with one free hand. It was just going to grab him across his left side now though as his arm was up in the air and unavailable, and because he had attempted a haphazard attack there was no time to jump off like he should have done in the first place.

When the Mech caught him it would crunch down and grip hard, easily lifting his weight with a single hand, prepared for the coup de grace.

[ImportantNobody]

He hardly even felt the pressure of the grip on his armor, so if the mech thought finger strength would be enough to crush him then he had another thing coming. By the time that happened the mech would have run out of batteries or whatever fancy technology such a thing used. The problem, of course, would then be if he would shot him while he was trapped. He needed to avoid this somehow before he could do anything else.

He threw his created weapon in an underhanded way so that it didn't spin on it's axis, instead flying straight as an arrow towards the camera in place of the mech's head. Although it would be a very nice bonus if it hit and destroyed it, this wasn't the main reason for his action. He wanted his hands free so that he could create something else. Holding out his palms, which the mech neglected to trap in exchange for picking him up by the torso, he let his lava begin to flow out into a sort of a bubble shape around him; a half circle over his head, trickling heavily down the mech's hand, and forming into another half circle around his legs, attempting to encase himself in it's protective shielding before the mech would get him into position to fire, and if he did fire before the shield would completely gain it's strength in 3 seconds then it would still obscure it's view, which he would shift his head to the left as far as possible to trick him in case he shot dead center where his head would have been.

This process would require all of his concentration for now so he couldn't begin forming his next plan until it was over with.

[MelonHead]

The Mech seized hold of the armoured man and with its incredible grip asserted Higan ripped the man from the Mech’s leg as if he was a small limpet. Under the Mech’s control now, and at his mercy, he quickly tipped the man upside down by having the Mech’s right hand twist around anti clockwise, most likely preventing him from effectively attacking at the same time. He held him at arm’s length upside down and completely vulnerable, swung his rifle around and began to fire straight into the weakened area of the armour at his back from barely a foot away. It was a terrible thing to behold, almost as if the Mech was conducting some sort of experiment on the armoured man, throwing him around like a toy.

The man was trying to react, but frankly it was unlikely he’d be able to understand what was happening to him as he was suddenly flipped upside down, certainly not in time to react to the rifle round slamming into his weakened back.

[ImportantNobody]

"Dagnabbit!" Saanga thought to himself as he was spun around, the magma splashing around him haphazardly and cooling into little chunks that rained the glitterly black substance onto the hot earth that was once below him, but now over his head. Some of it still clung to him and the mech in random splotches, solidifying against them in a manner that would be a pain to scrape off in the morning.

That's right! Maybe he could just solidify a bunch of magma all over the mech's joints! Even if the mech could overpower the material before it solidified completely, it was still a thought. Before he could take any action, however, the hot sting of bullets sent another shower of material upwards...err...downwards as the armor was chipped away to the bare bones, revealing it's hot gooey center that wouldn't withstand another blow, the damage too severe to repair in time.

"I-I-I give up! Just put me down!" He pleaded.

[MelonHead]

“He gives up? Well that’s no damn fun.” Higan considered his options, the rifle poised to blast a hole through his stricken foe’s back while he was hoisted upside down. He thought about pulling the trigger right then and there, that would be the smart thing to do, this was a search and destroy mission after all. However, the anomalies were becoming more and more common in the Grent Republic, it was possible that they couldn’t just keep killing everything unusual that entered their perimeter, as of yet he hadn’t heard of any of the anomalies being questioned. This humanoid he held at his mercy right now could be the answer to the countless questions the scientists had.

He centred the rifle on his target, finger brushing the trigger system, mind racing. Eventually something clicked, and he came to a decision based off his fairly significant experience in the field.

Projecting his voice outside the Mech, Higan addressed his target for the first time.

“Alright, this is how it’s gunna work, you’re going to take off your fancy armour and stop resisting, and I’m going to carry you back to base. Any funny movements and I’ll put you down permanently, understand?” The Mech dropped the man suddenly, and trained all three weapons on his inert form, at this range more than capable of obliterating him if he should do anything less than remove his armour.